...On the game-winner, Chase Pearson chipped the puck out of the UMaine zone along the left-wing boards and Vesey raced onto the puck and carried it down the left side on a two-on-one with Eduards Tralmaks.

“I had a good head of steam and I saw a little room on the short side. I closed my eyes and shot,” said Vesey, whose shot sailed over Adam Huska’s blocker and glanced into the net off the short-side post.

“I had scored a couple of goals short side in practice this week,” noted Vesey.

“That was a great shot. It was a goal scorer’s goal,” said UConn head coach Mike Cavanaugh.

“It was a big-time play by a senior forward,” said UMaine coach Red Gendron.

UMaine hockey wins opener in overtimeNolan Vesey scores the winner and goalie Rob McGovern comes up big in a win over UConn

...“Their defenseman took the pass away and Nolan made the right decision to shoot,” Coach Red Gendron said. “But more importantly, he wired one off the post and in.”

Maine never would have made it to overtime Friday night if junior goalie Rob McGovern had not stood tall, especially in the third period as the Black Bears clung to a 3-2 lead.

McGovern stuffed Huskies winger Corey Ronan on a breakaway after Ronan picked off a careless cross-rink pass in the neutral zone. Moments later, McGovern stretched his right leg to deny center Benjamin Freeman, who had danced through the Black Bears defense. McGovern stopped Freeman, in all alone once again, later in the period.

“He played extremely well,” Gendron said of McGovern. “We started turning the puck over or getting caught out of position, giving up breakaways and odd-man rushes and things like that because we lacked a little bit of poise. McGovern did his job. He stopped the puck.”

ORONO, Maine – Brendan Robbins scored just over a minute into the third period, but the University of Maine men's hockey team dropp a 5-1 Hockey East decision to UConn on Saturday afternoon at Alfond Arena.

UConn (1-1-0, 1-1-0 HEA) opened the scoring five minutes and two seconds into the first period and then used two power-play tallies – one in the first and another in the second – to own a three-goal lead heading into the third period. UMaine (1-1-0, 1-1-0 HEA), though, came alive in the second period and outshot the visitors 13-8 in the middle frame. That momentum carried into the third period, and Robbins capitalized for the Black Bears to cut the deficit to two after a nice play by defenseman Rob Michel to keep the puck in at the right point. However, the Huskies' Cody Ronan got a short-handed tally 26 seconds later to dampen the Black Bears comeback.

The Black Bears did not fade away, and with goaltender Jeremy Swayman on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, UMaine peppered Adam Huska with shots in search of an equalizer for five minutes, 31 seconds of play until Karl El-Mir sent the puck into the empty net for an insurance goal. UMaine rained 15 shots on frame during the final period.

Swayman (0-1-0) finished with 26 saves in his first collegiate start while Huska (1-1-0) finished with 38. The Huskies finished 2-for-3 on the power-play while the Black Bears went 0-for-4. UMaine held the final edge in shots (39-31), with Chase Person registering a game-high seven.

Goal Recaps• (UConn 1): After a shot from Miles Gendron, Derek Pratt potted the rebound.• (UConn 2): From the left circle, Gendron put a shot on goal that Swayman made the initial save on before Alexander Payusov put in the rebound.• (UConn 3) : Swayman did well to stop two initial shots by Johnny Austin and Gendron but Maxim Letunov was able to backhand in a loose puck at the right post.• (Maine 1) : The Huskies tried to lift the puck out of the zone, but Michel made a deft grab and then dropped the puck and passed it to a re-grouping Robbins. Ribbins carried the puck along the right circle and then wristed a shot into the top of the net, stick side.• (UConn 4) : With some stick work down low, Ronan was able to squeeze a blind shot off that found its way into the net.• (UConn 5): El-Mir gained possession in the neutral zone and backhanded the puck into the empty net.

Notes• The all-time series between UMaine and UConn is now all tied up at 4-4-3.• Five different Black Bears scored goals over the two-game series (Tim Doherty, Michel, Peter Housakos, Nolan Vesey, Robbins).

Up Next• UMaine will have two weeks off before taking to the ice again, with Miami University (Ohio) set to venture to Orono on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21.

“We actually played better on Saturday than we did on Friday,” said Gendron. “It was just an eight-minute span, the last eight minutes of the first period, where we let the game get away from us. Other than that, in the first 12 minutes of the first period and in the second and third periods, we dominated the game.

“We just have to get better at the things that caused us problems.”

UConn scored twice over the final 5:02 of the first period Saturday to take a lead it did not relinquish.

“We can take a lot of positives away from the weekend,” said sophomore center and co-captain Chase Pearson. “Our new players have already had a big impact.”